Greg Mankiw's Blog

Random Observations for Students of Economics

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

More on the Economics of Healthcare

Back in July, I wrote a NY Times column about the economics of healthcare. Yesterday, my friend John Cochrane posted a lengthy response. I won't take the time to reply to all of John's points, but like everything John writes, his post is provocative and thoughtful. So I would encourage people to read it and decide for themselves.

John is certainly correct when he speculates about my motivation in writing the column:

It sounded like a good column idea, "I'll just run down the econ 101 list of potential problems with health care and insurance and do my job as an economic educator."

I have always thought of my job as first and forecast being an economics educator, and my Times column is just one outlet.I wrote this particular column around the same time I was writing about the economics of healthcare in a longer piece, which is designed to be an optional chapter for users of my favorite textbook. You can read the longer piece here.

Still #1

Friday, September 08, 2017

How to Get People to Get Along

Monday, September 04, 2017

A Reading List

Every few years, I teach (in addition to ec 10) a freshman seminar for about a dozen students. The seminar is essentially a book group for students who are taking introductory economics concurrently or who have advanced placement credit in economics. Here is a list of this year's books:

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

News from Amazon

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

What Moderates Believe

I much appreciated today's column by David Brooks, though he seems to be describing center-right moderates more than center-left moderates (or is that my own bias showing up?).David also taught me a new word: syncretistic. It refers to combining different forms of belief.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

CEA Chairs on Steel Tariffs

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Report from the NFF

It is now that time of year when I am enjoying the Nantucket Film Festival. My wife and I today saw The Big Sick. Despite the not very enticing title, we loved it. The film is based on the real-life romance of the two screen writers, emphasizing the difficulty of bridging cross-cultural expectations. It is more heartfelt than a standard rom-com, more comedic than a drama, more earnest than standard Hollywood fare. Most definitely recommended, especially for a date night.

Monday, June 12, 2017

Hamilton Tickets Redux

Dynamic pricing and super-premium prices may be relatively new, but the scarcity of tickets for hit shows has a long tradition. Mr. Schumacher cited “My Fair Lady,” the “Hamilton” of the 1955-56 Broadway season. As Broadway lore has it, a man in the audience turned to his neighbor, an older woman, and asked why the fifth-row center seat next to her was empty.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Why people prefer unequal societies

There is immense concern about economic inequality, both among the scholarly community and in the general public, and many insist that equality is an important social goal. However, when people are asked about the ideal distribution of wealth in their country, they actually prefer unequal societies. We suggest that these two phenomena can be reconciled by noticing that, despite appearances to the contrary, there is no evidence that people are bothered by economic inequality itself. Rather, they are bothered by something that is often confounded with inequality: economic unfairness. Drawing upon laboratory studies, cross-cultural research, and experiments with babies and young children, we argue that humans naturally favour fair distributions, not equal ones, and that when fairness and equality clash, people prefer fair inequality over unfair equality. Both psychological research and decisions by policymakers would benefit from more clearly distinguishing inequality from unfairness.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Adverse Selection in Practice

This article about genetic testing presents a great example of adverse selection:

Pat Reilly had good reason to worry about Alzheimer’s disease: Her mother had it, and she saw firsthand the havoc it could wreak on a family, much of it financial.

So Ms. Reilly, 77, a retired social worker in Ann Arbor, Mich., applied for a long-term care insurance policy. Wary of enrolling people at risk for dementia, the insurance company tested her memory three times before issuing the policy.

But Ms. Reilly knew something the insurer did not: She has inherited the ApoE4 gene, which increases the lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer’s. “I decided I’d best get long-term care insurance,” she said.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

How Best to Tax Business

About Me

I am the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where I teach introductory economics (ec 10). I use this blog to keep in touch with my current and former students. Teachers and students at other schools, as well as others interested in economic issues, are welcome to use this resource.